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Transport Minister says "buy a car"

posted Saturday 21 August 2004
From Sydney's "Inner West Courier", Tuesday August 17 2004-

Lead article, page 3-

"Minister says 'buy a car'.

Public transport advocates were outraged when the Transport Minister recommended buying a car.

Report (by) Evan Mistilis.

The Minister for Transport, Michael Costa, has a simple message for Inner West commuters who are fed up with the State Rail system: buy a car.

'The Minister said you can buy a car very cheaply, ' a spokesperson for Mr Costa said.

'Even allowing for depreciation, it makes it very competitive.'

In interviews Mr Costa has made no secret of his belief that driving a car is a viable alternative to public transport.

(Paragraphs omitted)

A spokesman for Mr Costa said the Government was committed to public transport in NSW.

(Sentences omitted)

He said weekends had only a third of the number of rail commuters, but two thirds of the number of train services. He said that while the frequency of services had been slashed to free up drivers for peak-hour rosters, extra carriages were added to the weekend trains to accommodate the crowds.

'People need to remember the rail network cannot be all things to all people,' the spokesperson said. 'It's designed to move a large number of people in small amounts of time when demand is greatest {in peak hour}. People do have other options. If they want to use their car, it does not make sense {to run trains}'. "



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